"10th Round of OALP Bidding for Oil and Gas Assets Expected in August".

The 10th round of bidding for oil and gas assets under the Centre’s Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) is expected to commence next month, according to officials from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

OALP-X is anticipated to be one of the largest rounds so far in terms of area covered and the number of blocks on offer, potentially doubling the area under exploration. Concurrently, the winning bids for OALP-IX, whose final deadline was extended to May, will also be announced.

“The government aims to rapidly expand the area under exploration. After the successful completion of the OALP-IX and X bid rounds, approximately 560,000 sq km is expected to come under exploration by the end of the year,” an official stated.

India’s estimated sedimentary area comprises 3.36 million sq km across 26 sedimentary basins, with 1.63 million sq km on land, 410,000 sq km in shallow offshore areas up to 400 meters from the coast, and 1.32 million sq km in deepwater areas beyond 400 meters. Currently, an estimated 10% of the sedimentary basins are under exploration.

The ninth round featured 28 blocks covering approximately 136,000 sq km, including 23 blocks based on expressions of interest (EoIs) received from companies between April 2022 and March 2023, and five blocks designated by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons. These blocks span eight sedimentary basins, comprising nine onland blocks, eight shallow water blocks, and 11 ultra-deep-water blocks. To date, 134 exploration and production blocks covering 207,000 sq km across 19 sedimentary basins have been awarded by the government.

Attracting foreign players has been challenging. OALP-VIII, which ran for a year until July 5, 2023, initially opened on July 7, 2022, with 10 blocks on offer. The deadline for submission of bids was extended more than four times. While officials attributed the extensions to requests from interested bidders, industry sources suggested the government was hoping to attract more foreign participants.

BS